An Auckland man charged with stabbing his friend to death on New Year's morning 2013 told friends that the victim was "lying down there – I shanked him up".

Peter Shaun Job, 39, is on trial in the High Court in Auckland charged with the murder of Nathan Albert, 27.

In opening the trial, Crown prosecutor Scott McColgan said on January 1, 2013, while most people slept off the revelries of the previous night, Albert "sat on a kerb in Pilkington Rd, Panmure, bleeding out and dying as a result of a stab wound".

McColgan said Albert was the boyfriend of Job's niece.

Job and Albert had been at a New Year's Eve party the night before with their respective partners.

The four went into the city to continue partying, but the women did not go into the bars as Albert's partner was only 15.

Job and Albert kept drinking and rejoined the women at their car later on.

A physical fight developed because Albert had not paid for drinks for Job as he had promised.

Job and the two women left in the car and Job told his niece that Albert was an "egg" and she should not see him anymore.

Albert arrived in a taxi at Job's house in Panmure later that morning while the two women were at a McDonald's restaurant getting food.

Albert did not have any money for his taxi fare and went inside and re-emerged with Job, who he appeared to be having an altercation with.

The taxi driver said the two men were "eyeballing" each other and then Albert ran off with Job in pursuit.

Camera footage from within the taxi showed Job was away for four minutes – from 4.11am to 4.15am – before he returned and told the taxi driver he should not have brought Albert there.

The taxi driver left and drove past Albert sitting on the kerb of nearby Pilkington Rd. He asked for his taxi fare, but got no response and left.

"What he had seen without appreciating it was Mr Albert bleeding out and dying," McColgan said.

No witnesses saw the stabbing, but seven people would testify to seeing the pair either just before or just after the wounding.

McColgan said Job had concealed a knife and chased a man down a street to have an altercation with him.

"He had the angry mindset to kill him or he had the angry mindset to deliberately gamble with his life. That, members of the jury, is murderous intent."

Defence lawyer Maria Pecotic said the Crown had got the case "completely wrong".

Job had acted in self-defence at a man who had attacked him three times that night – once in town, once in the house after he arrived uninvited and once in Pilkington Rd – the attack that ended in Albert's death, she said.

Job had "no option but to arm himself with that knife to scare [Albert] off", she said.